Episode 803: The Coin-Flip Controversy
Date January 22, 2016 Summary Ben and Sam banter about Yoenis Cespedes, then revisit the Josh Donaldson deal and answer listener emails about umpire inadequacy, the Ausmus-Matheny paradox, and what it would cost to pay minor leaguers minimum wage. Topics * Revisiting the Josh Donaldson trade * Brad Ausmus & Mike Matheny's defensive value * Bad umpire mistakes * Paying minor league players minimum wage Intro The Black Keys, "Year in Review" Outro Iron & Wine, "Boy with a Coin" Episode outtake sound clip Banter * Episode 802 follow-up: The Mets and Yoenis Cespedes are discussing a three year deal with an opt-out after the first year. * Sam saw a fake Twitter account post that Cespedes would sign with the Nationals because he was matching on Tinder with people in Washington, DC. Email Questions * Austin: trading Josh Donaldson "Does Beane deserve more slack than I'm giving?" * Michael: new BP catcher stats "If it had been released a month earlier do you think it would have made any impact on Ausmus' Hall of Fame votes? Do you think many voters consider him the best defensive catcher of all time?" * Kelvin: "Although I am not an avid NFL fan anymore I found myself captivated by the Packers vs. Cardinals game. The referee for the game botched the coin toss by tossing it directly in the air without the coin flipping. They players and referee all noticed this gaffe and so the referee reflipped the coin. Flipping a coin is obviously as easy a task as one can be assigned. I've been trying to figure out a baseball equivalent for this scenario. Is there any task so mundane that an umpire could butcher it so badly that it would be on par with failing to flip a coin in overtime." * Matthew: "If the players were to be paid actual minimum wage would teams just take the cut in revenue? Would we see a spike in ticket and merchandise pricing for minor league teams? Would we see teams reduce their number of minor league teams or players, or would we see some other consequence?" Notes * Ben initially defended the Josh Donaldson trade and says there is someone on Twitter who messages him monthly to troll him about it. * With the new catcher stats added to Baseball Prospectus, Brad Ausmus gained 24 career WAR. * During the Sonoma Stompers' season a player foul tipped a ball but the umpire was not paying attention, and called the pitch a ball. * Sam estimates that MLB teams would be willing to pay up to 10 times more than current expenses for their minor league teams. * Sam says that the Effectively Wild Facebook group is "the only place that Ben gets validation for his life choices". * In the episode outro Sam again (first done in Episode 766) flips and coin and tries to guess what side it landed on (he gets it wrong). Links * Effectively Wild Episode 803: The Coin-Flip Controversy Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes